Like the Spring Rain

I am a huge fan of the Christian singer, Steven Curtis Chapman. I have purchased many of his CDs and now love to watch videos that people have posted online using his music. I even had the joy of seeing him live in the Kansas City area at a free concert I attended with my sister several years ago. Even though I have never met Mr. Chapman I know we have something in common. In 2008, the Chapman's young daughter Maria died in a tragic accident. I hurt for the family and wondered how they could ever get past the grief. I did not know then that a year later I would be facing the death of my oldest brother to pancreatic cancer and the loss of my father-in-law several months later.
Grief is hard to understand. Each of us deal with it in a different way. The face of grief changes. Some days it is a punch in the gut that feels like it will never go away. Other days it is a soft ache as you skim an old photo album. It is sleepless nights and hard days. Sometimes you expect it and other times it creeps up to surprise you in a memory so strong it threatens to take your breath away. It is fear when you aren't sure you can go on. It is a smell that reminds us. It is a place that makes us vulnerable and unsure of what to do next. It is a place that you are unsure of going to because the memories there are just too strong. It is personal. It causes you to question. It gives you guilt. It is anger. There is not a right or wrong way to do it. Grief overwhelms. It goes deep and is not something to "get past". It changes you forever.
There is another thing that Mr. Chapman and I have in common. Hope. It didn't make it easier but it has truly helped. In the months following the death of his daughter ideas began forming, words were written down, music began to take shape. The result were songs that have been a balm to my soul over the last year and a half. In his song, Spring is Coming, Chapman describes how his tears of grief were planted in the ground and that it felt as though winter had come". But even with this heavy heart he knows that there is the promise and hope of spring.
The words are not just alluding to the change of seasons but that we who believe Jesus has paid the ultimate sacrifice for us have been given hope. We find these these promises in Lamentations and the Psalms.

"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." Lamentations 3:22-23

"Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him. Truly he is my rock and my salvation, he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God, he is my mighty rock, my refuge. Trust in him at all times, you people, pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge." Psalm 62:5-8


But your winter days can change with God's help. As we move from this season of winter into the coming spring think of these words:

"Let us acknowledge the Lord, let us press on to acknowledge him, As surely as the sun rises he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth." Hosea 6:3

God promises to stand with us in the pain and suffering of this life if we look to him. He promises to change those dark, winter days of our grief to a more bearable day of warmth. So, my friends, let God help you through these dark days of life. At the end of his song Mr. Chapman has some young children join him.

Out of these ashes, beauty will rise,
Sorrow will be turned to joy,
All we hoped for soon will appear,
Out of the dark clouds, beauty will shine
All of earth and heaven rejoice
Spring is coming soon.

God is there, just as he promised, coming like the spring rain.


If you would like to listen to Steven Curtis Chapman's song Spring is Coming go to http://www.youtube.com/ and enter the title of the song and the artist's name into the search box.